Spending a few moments at Rothko’s room at Tate Modern, the viewer finds themselves slipping into silence. The monumental paintings in shades of red create an almost disorienting atmosphere that evokes a feeling of a higher, transcendental experience. Similar feelings can be awakened by work of Yves Klein, Angus Martin and, in the Irish context, by the art of Sean Scully, Felim Egan and Maria Simmonds Gooding.

The theme of this exhibition, Silence is partially inspired by Abstract Expressionism and the Surrealist idea of artwork that derives from, and speaks to, one’s unconscious. It references art that causes the viewer to fall silent in contemplative and meditative calm.

In the twentieth century, colour field painters attempted to provoke this feeling by creating works with large blocks of the same colour in simple, mostly geometrical compositions. Barnett Newman has written: ‘Instead of making cathedrals out of Christ, man, or ‘’life’’, we are making it out of ourselves, out of our own feelings’.

In this exhibition we seek to bring together artists whose work is evocative of silence, reflection and transcendence.

Curators and selection panel:

Dr Angela Griffith, Assistant Professor, Department of the History of Art and Architecture, TCD
Anne Hodge, Curator of Prints and Drawings, National Gallery of Ireland
Peter Brennan, Gallery Director, Graphic Studio Gallery, Dublin